home again

My family returned from a fun and meaningful week at the Upper Peninsula Bible Camp. Lots of good people who have become good friends ascend every year for family camp, which somehow always turns into a special time that is hard to put into words. The setting is beautiful, the food is spectacular, and the people, especially the Canadians, are really, really kind.

On the drive there and back I noticed that the leaves are already beginning to change (in the middle of August!) and that the main roads in the UP are somehow smoother than the roads near my house. The Pictured Rocks Lakeshore is beautiful and traffic is scarce, so it’s a perfect place to visit or go camping in August. Why fight the crowds at Yosemite? Come sample the rugged coast and desolate beaches of Pure Michigan. The football team will probably stink again, but our natural resources are pretty good, and unspoiled.

I came home to learn that former baseball player Chad Curtis had been found guilty of sexually molesting three teenage girls in a high school training room. The news is sad because Chad is a Christian and because he might actually have done it. From the newspaper accounts it seems that there is reason to question the girls’ stories, but at the very least he put himself in some extremely compromising situations.

If Chad did what they’re accusing him of then he should go away to prison for the full 15 years. If he didn’t, he still should have known better than to be alone with a teenage girl in a windowless room, giving her a sports massage that was supposed to eliminate the lactic acid in her posterior. Even the description makes me think he’s guilty of something. The lesson I’m taking away from this is that we must take every precaution to avoid even the appearance of evil. If we find ourselves in a compromising situation then we’ve already compromised, even if we technically did nothing wrong.

“If we find ourselves in a compromising situation then we’ve already compromised, even if we technically did nothing wrong.” I agree that prudence and righteousness will keep us from openly flirting with disaster, but I do think some compromising situations can fall upon us at lightning speed or with cunning craftiness. I think this is important to say, because it happens so often that women are accused baiting bad behavior by putting themselves in compromising situations. If we avoid every potential pitfall we will be shackled. Living in the presence of fallen human beings is compromise enough for any disaster.